DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0345Z July 2, 2009
Southwest Canada: A band of SO2 stretches to the east-northeast from Vancouver Island across southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and southern Saskatchewan. Another band of SO2 stretches to the east across central British Columbia and central Alberta before wrapping northeastward over northwest Saskatchewan. Both bands are roughly 50-100km wide. Northern Plains/Midwest/South Central Canada: A band of thin to moderately dense smoke likely mixed with SO2, was still positioned from southern Manitoba southward into eastern North and South Dakota, western Minnesota, western Iowa, Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and western Tennessee. The hazy appearance from this smoke and SO2 was pinned along the back edge of an upper level trough that has been moving very little over the past few days. Central to Southern Plains: Thin to moderately dense smoke and haze covered parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama this evening. Much of this smoke was leftover from the numerous fires that were burning yesterday across Kansas and Oklahoma, though smoke from active fires in the same areas today was also being added to the mixture of aerosols. Colorado/New Mexico/Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles: Wispy areas of thin to moderately dense smoke were observed moving southeastward across southeast Colorado and northeast New Mexico into the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. It is believed that most of this smoke was produced by fires in Utah and Colorado yesterday, with the fire in western Colorado still producing smoke today. Alaska: A concentrated area of remnant SO2 from volcanic activity was seen this evening over the Aleutians and the southwest to northwest parts of Alaska. Some SO2 was also still present over northeast Alaska and the northern part of the Yukon Territory. Some thin smoke was also seen over central Alaska but it was mixing with the SO2 and was not as easy to identify this evening. Northeast Canada: A large wildfire north of Wabush Lake near the Quebec/Labrador border was producing an approximately 200km long plume of very dense smoke that was spreading northwestward. Sheffler More information on the areas of smoke described above as well as others can be found at the locations listed below. THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov